


From The Ashes

by sincerelybummie



Category: Naruto, Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: AU mixed w/ Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, BAMF Haruno Sakura, Crossover Pairings, F/M, Haruno Sakura-centric, Minor Haruno Sakura/Uzumaki Naruto, Slow Burn, brief mentions of narusaku, sakura is a big sister of 3 troublemakers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-11-08 07:29:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11076879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sincerelybummie/pseuds/sincerelybummie
Summary: She's born again with a different life, in a different time and in a different setting, but the outcome is still the same. She'll lose those precious to her and protect what little remains. She'll train, fight and study, join the military and then a war. Again.Sakura has been through this before and she will rise from the ashes unscathed and anew, ready to conquer the world.





	1. Dreams of the Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sakura seeks comfort from a bad dream by creeping inside her little sister mikasa's bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is happening.

 

> “As a lotus flower is born in water, grows in water and rises out of water to stand above it unsoiled, so I, born in the world, raised in the world having overcome the world, live unsoiled by the world.” – Buddha

* * *

**What a sad dream.  
**

 

_"What will you give up in exchange for power?"_

There was nothing she feared now as she held the rabbit goddess's heart within her grasp and watched how the life drained from the lavender eyes and the goddess Kaguya disintegrated into the air, like she was never there and she was just nothing more than a bad nightmare. The war was over, but she didn't feel the slightest bit of joy. She stared at the heart within her palm and the price she has to pay rings loud in her ears.

_"I give up my humanity, my life and soul. Just please...give me the strength to save them."_

Sakura clenched the heart in her hand and brought it up to her face, teeth sinking into the muscle as she teared at and devoured the heart until nothing remained but the blood on her hands and around her mouth and chin. With each tear, bite and swallow of Kaguya's heart, the pinkette felt new power surge within her, molding into her body and changing her. 

_"When a god falls, there needs to be someone to take it's place."_

The kunoichi wrapped her arms around herself as her body started to tremble when she finally let the emotions bubble up to the surface. They were all gone and she was alone, she'll never see them again.

_"There is no turning back."_

Sakura screamed and shouted and cursed at the world as she sobbed into herself, sinking to her knees as her hands gripped tighter and tighter onto her arms. The pinkette's body grew warm and then started glowing a soft, warm pink and slowly, but surely, small pink orbs started ascending to the sky from her body. She was disappearing, being carried off by the winds and up to the sky like the cherry blossoms that fall in the spring.

_"You'll be reborn, with no chance in ever meeting your comrades, friend's and lover again."_

The war had killed off her team, her friends, her precious people and the one she loved, one by one. One by one she watched them fall, one by one she felt their lives fade at her finger tips. One by one, she lost them all until she was the last one standing. Sakura delicately wrapped her fingers around the chakra crystal Naruto had given her, a proposal that when the war was over and everything was settled, he'll make her his wife.

_"If they're happy and safe, that is all I could ever ask for."_

A smile tugged at her lips as she let out a dry chuckle, more tears spilling from her eyes as she finally disappeared from this world and the final orb that held her spirit, ascended to the sky. From afar, the people who were released from Kaguya's genjutsu watched as the orbs fluttered up into the sky, swirling around under the light that broke through the gray clouds before disappearing forever beneath the rays. It was like watching fireflies dance and with each 'firefly' that disappeared beyond the sky, more light broke through the clouds until the whole land was enveloped by the sun's warm embrace.

It was Sakura's last gift and her hope: the future.

A sign of a new beginning for the people. They will live on.

 

 The season of the cherry blossoms, along with the era of shinobi, had come to an end.

* * *

**No, it's not a dream. This is my reality.  
**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When she opens her eyes, she's not on the battlefield but in a warm bed, staring up at the ceiling of her bedroom. She lets the reality sink in slowly into her bones as the tears well up in her eyes and spill over her cheeks. ' _Ah. It happened again.'_ How long will she continue to torment herself by dreaming of the past.

Sakura lets out a sigh and rubs her eyes with her palms as she sits up in her bed, the sheets falling and pooling on her lap. Her hands drop to her lap and she looks to her right, spotting the familiar lump of her little sister still deep in the hands of sleep. Before she knew it, she had gotten out of bed and made her way towards her little sister, slipping under her covers and taking refuge in her bed.

Mikasa had her back facing her elder sister and had been awake since her sister had let out a sigh. Her own escaped her lips. "What's wrong?" Sakura had curled into herself and drew small circles on her sister's back, a distant and far off look on her face. "I was dreaming." Her voice was weak and hoarse and Mikasa knew what she meant. She turned around and small arms wrapped around Sakura's head as Mikasa cradled her sister's face into her chest, resting her cheek on the top of her head. The younger felt the elder's arms wrap around her torso. "Was it about the girl?" She softly said. There was a nod.

Mikasa didn't say anything for awhile and just held her sister close. Sakura had told her of these dreams she had about a girl who lost everything and gave up everything to save the world. Mikasa admires the girl in her sister’s tales and was always eager to listen when Sakura had more dreams or stories to share. But sometimes when her sister would tell her these stories, Her elder sister would look disconnected from the world. Mikasa had noticed there was a sad, far off look in her eyes. It wasn't always there though. Sometimes, there's nothing but fondness in her eyes as if she's recalling a memory. Mikasa keeps these observations to herself.

Her sister was different. The emerald green eyes had seen things beyond her comprehension and Mikasa wasn't the only one to notice. Their mother, Sumire, said Sakura is an old soul trapped in the body of a child and was wiser beyond her years. "She's just trying to find her place in this world, Mikasa. Help her when she gets lost, okay?" She recalled what her mother told her one day, when it was just them two alone in the house. "I promise mama." Mikasa is only nine and doesn't understand the depth behind her mothers words, but If her big sister needs help, she'll do all she can to help her. 

"The girl," she started off slowly, trying to choose her words carefully. "Can you tell me about her village? The one you said that was on fire." She felt Sakura shift and then her body start to shake as the sound of her laughter vibrated against Mikasa's chest. The youngest frowned. "What's so funny?" Sakura shook her head and smiled against her little sister's chest.

"I said her village was in the land of fire."

"Isn't that the same thing? The land was on fire!"

"The land wasn't _literally_ on fire! It's just the name of the place."

"...That's confusing."

Charcoal eyes met green and they held each others gaze for what felt like forever before both girls burst into a fit of laughter, tears gathering in their eyes before they wiped them away. Positions switched, Mikasa took full advantage of burying her face into her sister's chest and having her fingers comb through her black tresses. Knowing Sakura was no longer sad about her dream, Mikasa took advantage to hear more about her dreams. "So, her village?" she mumbled and the chuckle that vibrated through the eldests chest and left her lips confirmed she would get what she wanted.

"In the land of fire, there was a village hidden among the leaves..."

Mikasa smiled and closed her eyes as Sakura told her story, falling asleep to the lull of her sister's voice and dreaming of this village hidden among the leaves that her sister seemed to recall fondly of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this just happened.


	2. Bittersweet Reality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> then, now and the future, happiness is found in the moment of when it occurs.

 

> “As a lotus flower is born in water, grows in water and rises out of water to stand above it unsoiled, so I, born in the world, raised in the world having overcome the world, live unsoiled by the world.” – Buddha

* * *

 

The world had changed since then.

 

They live behind walls to protect them from giant humanoid creatures that devour people. They are the last remnants of the human race. Something about this doesn't seem right and it doesn't help that a voice in the back of her head said that this is all wrong. It unsettled her, but she shakes it off. No need to worry about something she can't grasp, they're safe. No need to worry.

The people dress different, look different, act different and live different than she remembers. The language she was born knowing is no longer spoken and another has taken its place, but her mother and Mikasa know the language and that makes her feel less alone. "We are the last remainders of our clan." Sumire had told her, fingers braiding her hair. "As long as I pass on the language and our history, I can keep it alive. It's not dead if someone knows about it." The words struck a chord deep in her heart and she clutches her chest.

Chakra remains.

It's embedded deep within our core and everyone is born with chakra. Anyone can wield it with the proper knowledge and a good teacher, but this isn't a time where chakra is the norm. It's been long forgotten and been unused for so long that it rests within the living as a weak flame with great potential if it were unlocked. Great potential rests within these people and it will continue to stay in slumber within them, for this is no longer the era of chakra and the warriors who wield and cultivated it. No, it is a sign of a forgotten past and end of an era of when man were like gods. They were gone.

Chakra remains, but its nothing but a mere legend.

She has changed since then.

No longer is her hair the color of the flower that inspired her namesake. The pink strands were traded for black tresses that looked red if the sun hits it, but her eyes are still the emerald color a whiskered boy told her set his heart aflame. She was born with her memories but could not make sense of it until she was twelve. Sakura would dream about her past life,dream of memories of people long gone and they were sad dreams that she could never remember but always woke up with tears spewing out her eyes.

On her twelfth birthday there was a pressure on her chest and a banging in her head and then the floodgates were unleashed. The former pinkette drowned in her memories and was bed ridden for three days with a fever because of it. All three days she cried out for people who were dead and spilled what seemed like endless tears when they never answered her. Sakura's heart was aching and her parent's heart ached with her. A parent never feels more useless when they can't do anything for their child but merely watch. 

Sakura was not an only child in this world, but was blessed with a little sister at the age of four. Holding Mikasa for the first time in her arms set ablaze a million different emotions in her body that the only thing she could do was cry. She cried and brought the bundle that was her sister to her face and rubbed her cheek against Mikasa's very soft one. "You're so small." She whispered to the bundle. Her sister was born on February 10th and Sakura's birthday wasn't until late March, but she couldn't ask for a greater gift than Mikasa being born. The year of her fourth birthday was the best birthday ever for Sakura.

She is a child reborn. This world isn't truly hers, but at the same time it's just as much hers as it is anyone else's. It's not the only thing she has ever known, but the home she remembers is long gone and the people have long passed, so it feels like it's the only thing she has ever known. The world was the same but it had changed with time. Her home had changed and so did the people who welcomed her back. Everything has changed and so had she.

She _was_ Sakura Haruno, a kunoichi of Konohagukre from The Land of Fire. Disciple of the Fifth Hokage, one of the Legendary Sannin. She _was_ part of the legendary Team 7, the most powerful team in all of the five great Shinobi nations, that helped save the world from a powerful goddess.

But Sakura Haruno _had_ died in the line of duty, along with her team and all other Shinobi during the war. That, was all in her past.

She is now Sakura Ackerman, the first born of Sumire and David Ackerman and the elder sister of Mikasa Ackerman. She remembers her past life and uses the knowledge and power to retrain and re-educate herself. She practices her taijutsu and leaps through the trees, perfects her chakra control and builds it up behind her forehead just like Tsunade taught her. She meditates to expand her chakra reserves and writes down all of the medicine knowledge she knows on paper, studying it again and agaim, tweaking them and improving them and writing down whatever she can learn of this worlds medicine as well. Sakura has done this everyday since she was twelve. It's been almost two years since then.

The world has changed, she had changed, but she is happy.

Even now as she watches the sun set behind the walls and lets the breeze play with her hair, she is content with her life. She is almost 14, her birthday two months away, and she has a family that loves and supports her. Sometimes she thinks if she truly deserves this happiness, but even if she has doubts if she deserves this, she is not hesitant in basking in the warmness this world is offering for her.

Sakura stares at the sky dyed a bright orange and then darkens as the sun continues to disappear beyond the walls, a smile on her lips as she tucks her knees into chest and rests her chin upon them. Her green eyes are sparkling with fondness and then she closes them.

"Everyone, I am happy. Please continue to watch over me."

* * *

Sakura's happiness didn't last long.

 

And she had expected this. The voice in the back of her head, the one she ignored and pushed back so far into her mind, told her so. It was the very same voice that told her that everything in this world screamed  _not human._ The titans, the walls, the government, the people, being the  _last_ of what remains of humanity. It told her it was not the case, but she ignored it. It didn't help that her body tingled in uneasiness when she starts to listen to the voice, that what she's being told is true and it didn't help either that her fingers itched and eyes drifted to the walls, wanting to climb them and confirm it with her own eyes and strength.

But, she ignored the urge, her instincts and stayed. She can live a normal life here. She can grow up normal, or what normal is for people living in these walls was. She can grow up, stay near her family, get a job, get married and have a family of her own...if she wanted. Did she want it? Could she dare dream to have such a simple life like that? Was she even allowed to? God, happiness was so tempting in this world and she wanted to hold it tightly between her fingers. She wanted a piece of that happiness, a piece of a future she could have had, but didn't. The very thing she was deprived of, that happiness and future, when she devoured Kaguya's heart.

Just when her finger tips have felt the warmth of happiness, it slipped from her grasp and shattered and she was cold again.

When Sakura pushed open the door to her home the copper smell of blood slapped her in the face, she recalled a memory from when she was in the war and the bodies of fallen shinobi and comrades piled up and fell around her. The smell of blood was everywhere and stuck onto your skin and flood your sense of smell and taste. Blood and Death clung onto you and etched its way in every part of you. The memory faded and the corpses of fallen comrades were replaced by the bodies of her parents, covered in their own blood and the life long gone from their eyes.

The former pinkette's knees grew weak and she tried to hold onto the threshold of the door for support, but her eyes were going hazy from the tears that were forming and her hand missed the wood. Sakura fell forward and landed in a pool of her father's blood, on her hands and knees. They were gone, just like that. "Oh, god." she whispered. "Oh, god. Oh, god. Why. Why! Why!" she screamed into the empty house and slammed her fists against the floor, splashing the blood around her and on her. Sakura was filled with anguish and rage and her body trembled violently as she succumbed to her emotions and then, then the tears spilled from her eyes and she was a sobbing mess. It was all gone, they were gone.

Her fingernails dug into the wood of the floor as she continued to sob until her lungs were aching for air and all the while, the voice in her head repeated over and over to her.

_I told you so._

* * *

Mikasa was a sign that not all was lost and Eren was a sign for new beginnings.

 

When Sakura had calmed herself down and stopped crying to take a look at her messy and blood stained home before her, it was then she had noticed that there was one presence missing and she cursed herself for not noticing it sooner. Mikasa's body wasn't here, she could still be alive. Her body acted on its own but she didn't complain. She was out the door and in the forest, calling her sister's name into the night.

The temperature had dropped and a boy was wrapping his scarf around Mikasa's neck and face when Sakura finally found her. Mikasa saw her approaching them before the boy did and gently shoved her savior to the side to run into her sister's arms, burying her face into the familiar chest and clinging on tightly to her last bit of family. The elder held the youngest tightly and nuzzled her nose in the crown of the little girl's head, whispering in their language about how sorry she is and that everything will be okay. The words were more to reassure Mikasa than herself, because Sakura honestly didn't know what they were going to do from now on.

Someone clearing their throat interrupted the green eyed girl from her thoughts and both sisters turned their attention to the man. He wore circle lenses glasses and had long hair that he tied back into a ponytail and Sakura narrowed her eyes at the familiarity of the man before her eyes widened when she found out. "Dr. Yeager." she breathed out and the man smiled at her, soft, kind and sorry for what had happened to her parents.

"Hello, Sakura. I'm glad you remember me," Mr. Yeager pushed his glasses up some more. "I wish we would have met again under better circumstances, I'm sorry." Sakura shook her head and mustered up the best smile she could to show Mr. Yeager, hoping it didn't show how much pain she was in. "Thank you for staying with Mikasa." The doctor held his hand up to stop her, signaling she didn't have to thank him and smiled once again at her.

"Sakura, Mikasa. I have a proposition for you two."

"Proposition?"

Doctor Yeager had placed his hands on top of the boy's shoulders and Sakura concluded that this must've been his son he talked about time to time when he made his visits to her home. "Both of you, come and live with us. You can make your home new home with us."

She let his words sink in and her eyes widened. Oh, god. She wanted too, she wanted to accept the offer but she didn't want to impose on the family at all. The thought that maybe both Mikasa and her would end up being too much for the family and end up being a burden scared Sakura. Maybe if she can convince them to just take in her little sister, because the heavens know she doesn't know how she can support them both, until she can find a way to support them on her own. Sakura can find out what she'll do but knowing that her sister will be well fed and under a roof will ease her worries by a landslide. As long as Mikasa was safe, she didn't care what will happen to her-

There was a tug on her shirt and she was snapped out of her thoughts and looked down at the boy who was trying to get her attention. Mikasa was behind the boy with her hand in his, holding his hand like if it was a life line and her charcoal eyes stared into the elder's emerald ones. She was looking at her for what their next step would be. Sakura didn't have an answer. The black cherry haired girl shifted her gaze to stare at the boy instead, green eyes locking with green eyes before taking in his appearance from his brown mop of hair, thick eyebrows, green eyes darker than hers and the blush that stained his cheeks. The boy shifted nervously on his feet and his eyes kept shifting from her face and then to the floor when she caught him staring too long at her. Sakura thought he was precious. He cleared his throat and stared at her head on, the blush not once leaving his cheeks even as determination burned in his eyes. 

"Come on, let's go home," he said and tugged on her shirt again and then held his hand out for her to take. "To our home."

Her breath hitched and she had her answer. The tears welled up in her eyes at his words just like her sister's did and Sakura placed her hand in the boy's smaller one and found reassurance when his hand held hers tightly, like he never wanted to let go and she let the tears finally fall. Sakura never wanted him to let go either and squeezed his hand in response.

"Yeah, let's go home."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and thus eren had his first crush.


End file.
